Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries, not least Guyana, have long had to face challenges in matters of public accountability not least in areas pertaining to the administration of public funds. Contextually they – and again including Guyana – would do well to follow the precedent set recently by Jamaica in signing on to the Inter-American Development Bank’s InvestmentMap regime which enables public access to a verifiable source of information that allows for citizens to continually track the ongoing progress of various aspects of state-financed projects and projects that utilize finances provided by donor or lending agencies.
Jamaica announced last week that it has signed on to the InvestmentMap facility which allows users to see the location of each project, determine its start to finish timelines, the budget attached to each project, how much has already been spent, and when the project is expected to end. “The platform is interactive. Citizens, NGOs, private companies, or other stakeholders can provide comments, ask questions and submit their own pictures of projects,” the Jamaica Gleaner quotes the country’s Ministry of Finance as saying.
